Zero Radiance
by Shade Adriel
Summary: It could have been a Dream World. Too bad humans are selfish. Now a few kids are all that stand between one organization and world domination.
1. Zero Radiance

Storm. Rain fell from the heavens, dousing anything and everything. It was dark. A red blade cut through the air, brilliantly reflecting the lightning that crackled through the sky.

"_What do you want from me!"_ _The voice of a frightened boy._

The blade was stained a darker red. A body slumped to the ground, growing as cold as the winter city air.

"_Nothing you need to live... just your dreams!" The voice of a cackling man._

He sheathed his sword and extended his hand to the shaking figure on the ground.

"Let's go."

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: **Zero Radiance **by Adriel Touchstone :

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"For ages, humans have wondered what exactly it is that gives us sentience. 'I think, therefore I am.' Nothing genetic gives us the ability to think – nothing explains the imagination. It just is. It's what gives us dreams. Dreams, of course, not bound to natural laws." The voice of the boy who wielded the red sword was the only noise aside from the ambient rainfall and occasional rumble of distant thunder – the storm was receding. Accompanying the boy's voice were images of civilizations across the ages flashing by, which suddenly changed to those of modern-day scientists.

"Recently, a group of scientists discovered a way to finally harness the Dream Drive, the source of imagination." The images switched to several businessmen.

"The Dream Crisis is an underground organization who stole the technology that harnesses the Dream Drives. All the 'unrelated' crimes in the past three days have been the DC experimenting with Drive technology." The...whatever... that was playing the images disappeared and the red-sword boy stepped forward. He had transformed out of the armor he was wearing and was now sporting a long, dark red coat. Underneath was a white dress shirt with the top two buttons left loose. Complementing the dark red of the coat was a pair of black pants and black Italian leather shoes. "My name is Vincent Antoine. I fight the DC. You're with me, now. What's your name?"

"Andrew Tersel...but why us? What makes us special?" Andrew was a stark contrast to Vincent's grungy professional look. Although the two were probably about the same age, Andrew retained the appearance of a teenager – khaki cargo pants and a black tee shirt with a white button-up shirt left open over the ensemble. His sneakers were no contest against Vincent's own shoes.

Vincent rested his back against the wall of the alley where the two were resting – a different alley, of course, than the one where Andrew had been attacked. "Don't know. When I was attacked with the machine, a sword appeared. But that must be the power of the Dream Drive – the power the DC wants."

"Do I have them? The powers, I mean" Andrew asked, still wary of Vincent.

"I don't know." Vincent took out a deck of cards and began to shuffle it, now lost in thought. "They would have been awakened when you were attacked, but I stopped that man from using his machine. Maybe..." he stopped shuffling and looked at Andrew for a second. "Don't move."

Andrew began to protest, but Vincent cut him off. "Trust me." Vincent held up his hand and a red glow surrounded it. The glow floated off his hand and, wisp-like, flew towards Andrew, expanding and spiraling around him, ribbon-like.

"What're you-"

"Waking up your Dream Drive. Don't fight it." The string of red energy continued to float lazily around Andrew, slowly losing its form. As its last traces of coherency disappeared, a weak white radiance began to emanate from Andrew.

"It doesn't look that strong..." Vincent said. He went back to shuffling his deck.

Andrew felt both apologetic and insulted at the same time. A silence passed between the boys. Caught between the two emotions, Andrew gestured towards Vincent's deck. "You duel?"

"Yeah." Vincent said, not lifting his gaze.

"Can I see your deck?" Andrew asked.

"You wouldn't know any of these cards." Vincent replied.

Andrew's eye twitched – he was getting tired of the way Vincent was treating him. "I'm a pretty good duelist... I know a lot of cards."

Raising an eyebrow, Vincent gave his deck to Andrew, whose eyes widened slightly. Out of the entire forty-card deck, Andrew didn't recognize a single card.

"How..."

"Dream Drive. When you learn how to use it, you can make a new deck of your own cards." Vincent took his deck back and continued to shuffle it. Andrew stared mutely at his own deck, a deck of the most famous cards that worked rather well... for him, at least. He didn't really do the tournament scene. However, he somehow knew that it would stand no chance against Vincent's own deck.

A few tense moments passed. All of a sudden, Vincent's spine straightened up, like he had been shocked.

"What?" Andrew asked.

"Something... not good. Come on." Vincent's coat swept out behind him as he walked swiftly towards the other end of the alley they were hiding out in. Andrew quickly followed him.

* * *

"You trash won't give it a rest today, will you?" Vincent asked. He and Andrew had run halfway across town, now both standing in a park and both rather wet. A man stood over the body of a small boy who appeared to be unconscious. 

"Ah, so you're the one who eliminated our agent... the guy with no name. We just call you Red. And I assume that was the target?" Vincent's opposition was a man in a black suit with a black dress shirt underneath, now pointing at Andrew. He wore black sunglasses and had his shiny blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that fell just below his shoulders. The most noticeable feature on his person, however, was the black device on his right forearm, shaped like a small cannon barrel partially squashed against his limb. Attached to its top were three thin columns running along its length, one of which was filled with a wispy white substance, the other two empty.

"It doesn't matter. Give me the Dream Drive." Vincent said.

"Why should I? You'll have to take it from me, Red. And unfortunately..." the white substance glowed to life and the cannon morphed into a sword blade. "I'll kill you before you get the chance." The black-clad man rushed at Vincent, who materialized the red blade and slashed through the transmuted cannon. The metal end of the sword clattered to the ground, but the tube containing the Dream Drive simply cracked a bit. The cannon unmorphed itself, now incomplete and crackling slightly.

"I don't like killing people. So, I'll destroy your Zero Zone instead." Vincent said. He held his sword blade's flat side against his left forearm and it lost its shape, momentarily turning into a liquidlike form before solidifying as a crimson colored duel disk with dark steel card pads. "I'm sure you understand the rules." Vincent slid his deck into its slot.

"A duel? Alright." The man's stolen Dream Drive again glowed to life, this time materializing a black duel disk around his arm. "You'll regret challenging someone who knows how to manipulate a Dream Drive."

Both players drew five cards. "I'll go first, since I bested you in swordplay." Vincent said, drawing an additional card. "**Crimson Knight** is summoned to the field in attack mode." 1400/1000 A monster wearing red armor appeared on the field, sword drawn. "I set a card face down and end my turn."

The black figure drew a card. "**Dream Shadow** in attack mode!" 1000/1300 A large, black, inklike puddle appeared on the field, occasionally popping a head with two yellow eyes out of its mass. "Now I activate the equip spell card **Seize the Drive**!" The shadow began to pulse and swell in size, finally bursting upward and taking form as a vaguely humanoid, crouching form that was as big as the trees around it. "This card gives any Dream monster 1500 additional attack points, making it far stronger than your monster! Attack now! _Black Nightmare_!"

As the suit's monster sent its fist flying at Vincent's knight, **Crimson Knight**'s armor began to glow, gaining golden trim and a flowing red cape. Furthermore, Vincent's own red sword appeared in his monster's hand in place of the silver sword it originally wielded.

"In response to your attack, I activate **Emergency Armaments**. This card allows me to play one equip spell card from my hand, and I choose **Armor of the Crimson Order**. This card allows me to instantly equip onto the same monster a **Crimson Sword** or **Crimson Shield** from my deck. I chose sword. It gives my monster 1000 more attack points and activates the first effect of **Armor of the Crimson Order** – one effect on your monster is negated during battle."

As Vincent explained all of this, his opponent's shadow shrunk back to its original size and its original attack strength of 1000. Growling, the man activated the white Dream Drive to partially shield him from the blast that would be forthcoming. White mist began to leak from the cracked container, flowing around him and creating a light haze.

"Lastly, I activate **Crimson Knight**'s own effect - one of three I may choose from during any instance of battle. I increase its attack points by 500. That makes its total attack power 2900." Vincent's knight rushed forward and slashed through the shadow, some red energy spilling through and striking his opponent. (B LP: 2100)

The black suited man swore. "Fine! I set two cards face down and end my turn!"

Vincent drew, but before he could do anything, his opponent flipped a card. "**Sleepwalking **can activate only when I have a Dream monster in my graveyard! I remove it from play and take possession of one of your monsters!" He laughed harshly as Vincent's knight moved to face its former master.

Calmly, Vincent placed a card on his disk. "I activate **Crimson Shield**, equipping it to **Crimson Knight**." As the red and gold shield appeared in the hands of **Crimson Knight**, the monster floated back over to Vincent's side of the field. Responding to the cry of protest from his opponent, Vincent pointed to his **Armor of the Crimson Order** card. "The second effect of **Armor of the Crimson Order** is that when it is in play with **Crimson Shield** negates all effects on **Crimson Knight**, except for ones that modify only its attack and defense values." As he said this, Crimson Knight's defense went up. 1400 + 1000/1000 + 1000

"Attack him directly with _Crimson Slash_."

Vincent's monster ran into a misty black barrier. "**Dream Eater** not only negates your attack, but lets me summon from my deck a monster with an attack power equal to or less than the damage I would have taken!"

As **Crimson Knight** jumped back to its place, a large black wolf appeared on the field. "**Dream Devourer** is summoned, and its effect is very particular to this moment... its base attack is zero. But, when it is summoned, that value becomes equal to the base attack of one of your monsters. In this case, it becomes 1400 thanks to your Crimson Knight. When it is summoned by **Dream Eater**, however, it also gains the point value specified at the time of activation in attack points. Namely, it now gains 2400 attack points!" Vincent watched with some trepidation as the wolf started to absorb the black energy provided by the trap card and swelled in size. 1400 + 2400/0

"Fine. I set one card face down and end my turn."

Vincent's opponent drew. "**Consumnation** activates when **Dream Eater** is in my graveyard. One monster on your side of the field has its attack cut in half. And since you've been nice enough to only have one monster this entire duel, my choice is obvious!" (1200/2000) "Now then, time to rid the field of your little action figure! **Dream Devourer**, _Jaws of Dream_!" Intending to make the attack as painful as possible, the man's Dream Drive flowed again from its container, surrounding the wolf-like monster.

The wolf jumped at **Crimson Knight** and ate it in one bite. "Even with your 500 point bonus, you still take 2100 points of..." the black-clad man trailed off as his wolf began to glow red, finally exploding.

"**Ruby Radiance** activates when you attack my monster with a monster that has over twice its original attack points. Your monster is destroyed and the third effect of **Armor of the Crimson Order** activates. My monster is destroyed and you take damage equal to its base attack plus whatever bonuses are active at the time. Namely..."

Vincent's knight rose into the air and leveled its sword at its new target. It began to glow even more brightly, restored to its original power plus the 1000 point bonus from its sword and the 500 point battle bonus it could receive. 2900/2000 "I win." **Crimson Knight** glowed even more brightly than before, turning into pure energy and flying into its sword, which then flew at the black-clad man, striking him through and finishing the duel.

"You...you might have won this little card game, but you'll be finished once I'm through with you!" Vincent's defeated opponent ripped the Dream Drive off of his broken cannon and snapped it in half. Roaring angrily, he harnessed its power, growing much stronger. His suit's seams began to tear as his muscle mass grew. His hair fell out of its ponytail, lengthening to waist level. "You can't touch me now! Even with your little powers, I have two Dream Drives! You'll never get the chance to knock out my Zero Zone!" Now hovering, the man held his hand out. A blast of black energy shot from it, soaring right towards Vincent.

As Vincent was struck square in the chest, his clothes blew away to reveal the red and gold armor from before – the Armor of the Crimson Order that Vincent had used in his duel. Vincent bent low to the ground and dashed forward, dodging more of the man's attacks. As he shot behind his opponent, Vincent stuck his leg out and spun around, a cloud of dust obscuring the area.

"That won't save you now!" the black-clad man shouted, firing more and more attacks into the cloud and blasting up more dust as the following explosions ripped through the park ground.

Red lightning crackled within the cloud. Suddenly, a red bar of light erupted into radiance within it, blowing the cloud away. Vincent was revealed, holding his glowing sword towards the sky, eyes narrowed at his opponent. He flew upwards, slashing the man with his sword, the glow absorbing itself into the target's body. The stolen Dream Drive exhumed itself from his figure and dissipated into the air. Landing, Vincent again stood up, sword again in the air. "**Red Valor Storm**." he said. Motes of red energy flew into the sword's blade, again giving it a red glow. He quickly spun around, bringing his blade down to waist level. A trail of red energy followed the blade, then flying outwards. Stepping back into a forward position, Vincent stabbed forward with his sword, its bright glow shattering, each shard of light turning into a crescent blade of energy and shooting forward, growing larger as they flew. The man was struck first with the energy trail, breaking his defenses and knocking him backward. The crescent blades then struck him, flying forwards in a narrow curving path.

Vincent's opponent let out one final yell. The area around him turned pure white. A loud cracking noise was heard and the man's eyes went blank. The white glow fractured and another mist – the man's own dream drive, a black substance, flew out from his body. He slumped to the ground.

"Is he...dead?" Andrew asked quietly, moving out from behind the tree he was using to hide.

"No. His Zero Zone was shattered, so he no longer possesses the capacity to think. Technically, he is alive, though."

As Vincent said this, black droplets of water fell from seemingly nowhere. They quickly spread out and formed a pool around the man. The black liquid shrunk into nothing, taking the man's body with it. Turning to the right, he saw that the same thing was happening to the boy who was attacked.

"What was that?" Andrew said in shock.

"Wouldn't be able to tell you." Vincent replied. As he said this, his Duel Disk turned back into crimson liquid and evaporated. "Wouldn't be able to tell you..." Vincent caught his deck and started shuffling it again, walking back into the city.

**End**

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I have ported over the information from WolfGeneral's thread to my own forum for this fic

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	2. Signs of Sapphire

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: **Zero Radiance **by Adriel Touchstone :

_Episode II – Signs of Sapphire_

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Andrew and Vincent had returned to Andrew's house after the ordeal of the previous night. Too enamored with the boy who saved their son to ask questions, Andrew's parents welcomed Vincent to stay as long as he needed to. He was staying in Andrew's room on the second mattress that pulled out from under the first.

"So," Vincent said, lying on the bed. "You get all that?"

Andrew blinked. "Uhh... the DC guys are after kids because they have strong Dream Drives... the Dream Drive is what lets humans think and be creative... you had an exceptionally strong Dream Drive that awakened and gave you powers when they attacked... so now you have powers like the ones you used to beat that guy in the black suit... and when you beat him, you expended his Dream Drives so you could shatter his Zero Zone... and the Zero Zone is the figurative place where the Dream Drive lives... that guy's natural Dream Drive was black because darkness had filled his Zero Zone... is that right?"

Vincent closed his eyes and nodded, grunting in assent. "Don't forget, we still don't know what's going on with you. You probably have a normal Dream Drive. I tried to wake it up. Nothing's happened yet."

Andrew sighed in resignation. "Yeah... well, what now? We can't just go looking for these guys, right? We're just kids."

Vincent sat up. "Of course we can't. Right now, we're going to train you for a few hours to make you useful. They only operate at night."

"Useful? You can't really expect me to duel them, can you?" Andrew was a bit unsteadied by Vincent's silence. "Or... do you think I can fight them? No way... I could never do that!"

Vincent now opened his eyes, staring straight into those of Andrew. "If they come knocking and I'm not around, what _will_ you do, then?"

Andrew didn't have an answer. The two sat in silence for a moment.

"Come on." Vincent said.

"Why is that card in your deck?" Vincent asked as Andrew summoned the **Paladin of White Dragon**. 1900/1200 "It was a ploy to boost card sales, trying to convince people that the Blue Eyes White Dragon was going to be released, which it never was."

"That doesn't mean it's not a good card!" Andrew replied. "It's plenty strong to defeat your **Crimson Knight**, since my **Heavy Storm** destroyed the **Armor of the Crimson Order** and **Crimson Sword** you used to strengthen it!" As Andrew declared this, his monster surged forward and slashed at Vincent's monster. However, Vincent's knight glowed red and countered with its own sword, stabbing through the paladin as it was slashed across its stomach. 1400+500/1000 "What!" Andrew shouted as his monster shattered. "Wait... oh yeah, your monster's ability..." (A LP: 900 V LP: 4000) "Man, I haven't even touched your life points yet..."

Vincent drew. "You have a long way to go. Maybe a fresh start will help after I defeat you." He slid his drawn card into his disk. A card with the picture of a symbol woven onto a banner, hanging from a wood plaque appeared. "**Crimson Crest** revives one **Crimson Knight** in my graveyard at the cost of a Crimson equip spell. I discard **Crimson Shield**." Vincent's monster reappeared, standing powerfully before Andrew. 1400/1000 "Attack."

As Vincent's knight moved in for the kill, a brown furball appeared and exploded, knocking the warrior back to its own side of the field. "I discard **Kuriboh** to negate the damage of your attack." Andrew said.

Vincent closed his eyes and smiled. "Effective. End turn."

Andrew slid a card off of his deck and looked at his hand. Suddenly, his expression switched to one of glee. "Alright! The duel is mine now! I remove from my graveyard **Paladin of White Dragon** and **Kuriboh** to special summon **Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning**!" 3000/2500 A brilliant sphere of light appeared in front of Andrew, shattering to reveal the legendary warrior. "Now even with all your equips and special add-ons and stuff, I can finally get rid of your knight! I bet you used up all your revival cards already!"

Vincent looked unafraid. "_He's not focusing on the duel. He'll use his monster's removal ability to get rid of my monster, rather than run it over and use the soldier's second attack to finish me."_

Even as he said this, the Black Luster Soldier's sword began to glow with a bright light. "Try and negate this attack! **Black Luster Soldier**, remove his knight from play!"

As Andrew bellowed the command, his soldier leveled its sword at Vincent's knight. A beam of pure white light fired from it, striking the warrior and seeping through its form. As the **Crimson Knight** lost its features completely, becoming a simple white silhouette, the light dispersed from the center outward, leaving nothing in its wake.

"Very good." Vincent said, applauding weakly. "Now tell me, how will you finish me off if you can't attack this turn?"

"I...what?" Andrew blinked.

"In your haste to get rid of my knight, you used your soldier's removal effect. If you had simply attacked it to destroy it, you would have done me 1100 points of damage. Combined with its second attack, you would have won the duel." Vincent drew a card.

"But I..."

Vincent didn't bother to address Andrew's weak stuttering as he put a card into his Duel Disk. "I activate **Crimson Emblem**." The same symbol that was on the **Crimson Crest** card appeared, this time on the armor of an unknown warrior. Vincent discarded a card from his hand and the Black Luster Soldier's armor suddenly turned dark red, the symbol on the card emblazoning itself in the monster's armor in bright red energy. "By discarding a monster from my hand to the graveyard, I can take control of a monster on your side of the field with an equal or lesser level."

"Game." However, as Vincent was about to order his monster to attack, he tensed up. "_...in broad daylight?"_ he thought to himself. "Andrew, something's happening in the park again. We have to leave." Vincent's DuelDisk disappeared. Andrew's began to malfunction, no longer receiving a complementing signal. Shutting it off, Andrew was secretly grateful to not have been struck down by his own monster's blade. He ran after Vincent.

* * *

The park bore not only the signs of the previous night's encounter, but new damages as well. Benches and trees were strewn in disarray across the entire area. The top of the park's central fountain had been sliced off and was lying a few feet away from the main body. Water was spurting everywhere as a result. The whole place had an odd bluish glow 

"Looks like someone got here first." Vincent, who had transformed into his fighting mode, said as he knelt over the body of a black-suited man. "His Zero Zone is intact, but..."

"It's no longer connected to his mind." came a voice. A boy – a young one. Vincent and Andrew both looked around, trying to find its source.

"Uh, where are you?" Andrew asked, projecting his voice in all directions.

"Be careful." the voice replied. Neither of the pair had much of a chance to register this thought before a torrent of black energy ripped through the area, completely decimating the fountain.

"Aha!" came yet another voice. A man. "So you two were the ones who took out our man! Red, we expected... and some other kid."

"Hey, I have a name, you know..." Andrew said, getting a bit annoyed at being constantly dismissed as 'that kid'.

"I'm sure you do," the man said, brushing Andrew off yet again. "At any rate... Red, you might be able to take us on individually, but this time, _he_'s sent two of us to take you out."

"He?" Vincent said, jumping out of the way as a second torrent of energy blasted through the area.

"If you beat us, we'll tell you who _he_ is." the second man, dressed identically as the first, said as he walked into the open.

"If I beat you, I'll make sure there's not enough left of you to tell me anything." Vincent replied. His sword materialized.

"Alright then." the first man said, his mouth twisting into a dark grin. A Dream Drive on his right arm flared to life as a large, thick sword appeared in his right hand. "Let's get him."

The second man activated a Dream Drive on his own right arm, producing an identical sword.

"Vincent!" Andrew shouted. No one paid him any mind – Vincent was slowly backing up as the two black-suited men advanced.

"_That must be the power of the Dream Drive_ – _the power the DC wants."_

"_Do I have them? The powers, I mean" Andrew asked, still wary of Vincent._

"_I don't know." _

Vincent's words rang through Andrew's mind.

"_If they come knocking and I'm not around, what will you do, then?"_

"What will I do..." Andrew whispered to himself.

"_What will you do?"_

"STOP!" he shouted. All three of the other men stopped their movement and turned to face Andrew. "You..." he said, pointing towards the first man. "You're going to duel me now!"

"Kid..." the man said, completely turning around and walking towards Andrew. "You're not worth the time." He rushed forward, sword in striking position.

"_What will you do?"_

"I'll fight." Andrew started running at his opponent. He focused himself, willing anything to come to his aid. For a moment, he felt something solid in his hand, but it phased back out of existence. Suddenly met with his opponent's sword staring down his throat, Andrew raised his arms in defense.

"ANDREW!" Vincent shouted, engaged in a sword duel with the second man.

Spurts of white mistlike energy shot from his Duel Disk, rapidly materializing as the black-suited man drew closer. A clang of metal was heard and Andrew opened his eyes tentatively. In front of him, the **Paladin of White Dragon** had its swords crossed, blocking the slash of the DC agent.

"Fine," the man said, relaxing his posture. "The name's Forty Two. I'll take you on." The sword on his right arm disappeared in a burst of smoke as a DuelDisk appeared on his left arm in an identical burst. He frowned as the Paladin did not disappear. "Alright... you'll need all the help you can get, anyway."

"I hardly imagine that's your actual name." Andrew said as he drew six cards. "_Whatever just happened was luck. Vincent was right, I need to focus better. I don't have any room to screw up this time."_ He threw a monster down. "I summon **Queen's Knight** in defense mode!" 1500/1600 A red and purple armored woman appeared in front of him, crouching. "I set two cards face down and end my turn."

Forty Two drew his own six card hand. "Such weak monsters... I'll show you true power. I summon **Black Horde**!" 500/500 x5 Five black blobs of inky shadow appeared on the field. "This monster is treated as five when it's summoned. Now I activate the spell **Hive Mentality**! This card allows me to sacrifice all but one of my attacks during my battle phase. In return, I can attack and defend with the combined strength of all level three or lower monsters on my side of the field! Destroy his **Queen's Knight**!"

The five monsters merged into one, becoming a sort of wave that flew at Andrew's monster. It was met, however, with a swirling vortex of energy. "**Negate Attack** prevents you from destroying my monster." Andrew said.

"Fine," the agent replied, ending his turn.

Andrew looked at his hand. "_Man, I have **King's Knight** and **Gilford the Lightning**_ _in my hand, but I can't summon them both in one turn. And I have to normal summon both of them to get their effects..."_ Andrew's mind was racing.

"Focus." said the boy's voice from earlier. Andrew looked around, still unsure of where the boy was.

"_Whatever, he's still right. I have to find a way to get three monsters out to summon Gilford and trigger his effect, but if I do that, then I can't summon him. It's a paradox."_ He clenched his jaw, then relaxed. "_I have to focus. What are my options? My facedown card is **Call of the Haunted** and I have **King's Knight**, **Gilford the Lightning**, **White Dragon Ritual**, and **Graceful Charity** in my hand."_ He looked at all his cards. "_White Dragon Ritual is useless since my paladin is already on the field... wait."_

Andrew's eyes widened as he realized what to do. "Alright! I play **Graceful Charity**, drawing three cards and then discarding two!" He did just that, drawing **Kishido** **Spirit**, **Old Vindictive Magician**, and **Kaiser Seahorse**. In return, he discarded **King's Knight** and **White Dragon Ritual**. "Now I play my trap, **Call of the Haunted**, to revive the **King's Knight** I just discarded!" 1600/1400

"Silly boy, are you trying to get **Jack's Knight** onto the field? Unfortunately, you have to normal summon it to do that." Forty Two mocked.

"I know that. But I don't need **Jack's Knight** for this! I tribute all three of my monsters and summon **Gilford the Lightning**!" 2800/1400

The silver-armored, red-clad warrior appeared on Andrew's side of the field in a bolt of lightning. "If your power is darkness, then I'll use light to banish that darkness! Gilford, wipe out his field!" Gilford raised his sword. A bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky, striking the blade. Gilford flew over to the other side of the field and began to spin rapidly, creating a vortex of lightning. All five manifestations of the **Black Horde** monster were sucked into the vortex and destroyed.

"That doesn't matter..." the black-suited man said as Gilford proceeded to strike him. (FT LP: 1200) "I'll show you that even light is consumed by the DC." He drew. "Thanks to you, I can now run you over! By removing from play the **Black Horde** in my graveyard, I can special summon **Black Rabid Horde**!" Vincent watched as the black monsters appeared again, this time much more violent looking – the puddles were bubbling and throbbing erratically. "This monster's attack points are equal to 500 plus 100 times the number of end phases the original **Black Horde** was on the field. Luckily for you, that number is simply one. So, each of my monsters has 600 attack points. One would think that **Hive Mentality** wouldn't work, since **Black Rabid Horde** is level 4... but all I need to do is activate **Hive Evolution** to change that fact!"

Another continuous spell appeared on Forty Two's field. "By paying 1000 life points, I can allow **Hive Mentality** to work on monsters of level four as well! His monsters pulsed in unison as they received the powerup. "3000 beats 2800! **Black Rabid Horde**, attack Gilford! _Black Rage Wave_!" Forty Two's monsters melded again and flew at Gilford, wrapping around the hero and consuming him. (A LP: 3800)

Andrew slid a card into his hand. "**Premature Burial**... even if I did revive Gilford, he wouldn't be able to stand up to that thing..."

"Why not revive that monster that was on your field at the beginning of the duel?" the boy's voice rang out.

"That's even worse. I don't..."

"_Dream Drive. When you learn how to use it, you can make a new deck of your own cards." _

Andrew's brow set itself in determination. "Alright." He breathed in as he activated **Premature Burial**. (A LP: 3000) "I... summon **Paladin of White Dragon** and activate its effect to summon the **Blue Eyes White Dragon** from my deck!"

Brilliant white light exploded from Andrew's deck as his monster transformed into the legendary Blue Eyes.

"This... this is impossible!" stuttered Forty Two.

"You're right," Andrew said, holding up his Duel Disk. "It is." There was no card representing the Blue Eyes. Instead, there was a rectangle of pure light. Apparently, he still wasn't strong enough to make a physical card.

"Now I summon **Kaiser Seahorse** to the field." The purple and blue aquatic monster appeared next to the Blue Eyes. 1700/1650

"You... you're cheating! There are only three Blue Eyes and Kaiba has them all!" Forty Two had completely lost his composure at the sight of the legendary dragon, still radiating white light.

"**Blue Eyes White Dragon**, eliminate the rabid horde with your _White Lightning_!" The Blue Eyes rose further into the sky and roared loudly. More and more white light radiated from it, finally striking down the horde.

"Moron, you didn't even activate your spell's effect." Andrew said upon seeing his dragon still intact and Forty Two's life points at zero.

Forty Two twitched. "Wait... I'm... I'm alive? I can still...think?" He shakily got up.

"Not for long." said the boy's voice. A blue arrow flew from the sky and struck Forty Two in the back. White light materialized around him.

"The Zero Zone..." Andrew said, identifying the light as the same that had surrounded the man from the previous night. A strange noise like an air valve being closed sounded through the air. The light faded.

As Forty Two fell to the ground again, the blue arrow began to slowly disintegrate.

"Hello." said the boy's voice, now sounding much more localized. Andrew felt a tap on his shoulder.

**End  
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I forgot to mention this last time, but I'll be updating this fic weekly. I still need characters submitted, check my forum for where to do it.

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	3. Birth of the Radiants

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: **Zero Radiance **by Adriel Touchstone :

_Episode III – Birth of the Radiants_

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Andrew turned. The boy behind him was...blue, or at least as blue as Vincent was red. His black hair, a bit messy and only slightly longer than Andrew's on hair, was streaked neon blue. His glasses – rimless – had a steel blue frame and the lenses were also slightly blue-tinted, hiding (predictably) blue eyes. He wore a royal blue men's kimono with a dark blue jacket and sash. His feet, oddly, made no sound as they sat on two wooden sandals with dark blue straps. Tied to his right forearm were two folded pieces of wood – judging by the arrow, Andrew assumed they comprised a collapsible bow and the tie was the bowstring.

"Uh." Andrew said, unable to find any other words.

"Thanks for helping." Vincent said, having dispatched the other agent. He walked up to the other two boys – while Andrew was probably about early 18, this new boy was visibly much younger, maybe 15 or 16.

"Yeah," the boy said, looking more than a bit uncomfortable with the prospect of both Andrew's and Vincent's company. "No problem."

"Guess you're like me – Dream Drive?" Vincent asked. The other boy nodded. "Follow me."

Vincent turned around and walked out of the park. The blue kid looked at Andrew, giving him a look that seemed to be asking if Vincent could be trusted. Andrew nodded slightly and followed Vincent.

"We're...back at my house." Andrew said, deadpanning.

"We have no headquarters." Vincent said nonchalantly, walking into Andrew's room.

The third boy walked in, not moving far past the door.

"It's ok, come in...uh...who are you?" Andrew asked, realizing he never got the boy's name.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm Masuyo!" the boy said, flustered. Out of 'battle mode', his hair lost its blue highlights and his glasses shined clear, their frames dark silver. His eyes turned brown. The kimono he wore turned to slightly faded jeans and a dark blue shirt. His shoes – now actual shoes – were white sneakers. Overall, his appearance lost the superhero luster and he looked more than a little less athletic, an aura not aided by the book he was gripping expertly in his right hand. He pushed his glasses up a bit, grinning nervously.

"Well Masuyo, I'm Andrew and this guy is Vincent." Andrew was trying his best to be sociable, since Vincent obviously wouldn't do the same. Despite his best efforts, if tumbleweeds could materialize out of thin air, one definitely would have. Nevertheless, several crickets chirped from outside Andrew's window. Masuyo's eyes were flicking rapidly between Andrew, Vincent, the window, and the rest of Andrew's room.

"So..." Andrew said, lying on his bed and looking pointedly at the ceiling. "Have you been fighting them for long? The DC, I mean."

"For a few days." Masuyo replied. "But not really fight, I mean I just kind of watch what they're doing and scare them away when something happens. I wouldn't be any good at real fighting..." he said, trailing off quietly at the end.

"You did ok back there." Vincent said.

"Thanks..." Masuyo said.

"What do you know about the DC?" Vincent continued, catching Masuyo off-guard.

"Well, uh, there's one guy at the very top who no one knows by name, and he has seven main aides, one for each continent. Each of those seven has at least three personal assistants and each of those assistants controls a faction of agents. The circumstances lead me to believe that when Forty Two was talking about the person who sent them, they were referring to one of the seven. We're not big enough to register in the agenda of the man at the top."

Even Vincent's eyes were wide after that explanation. "How...do you know that?" he asked.

"I'm not really sure, but every time I strike someone with an arrow, I get a bit of what they know. So I know the basics..." Masuyo replied.

"And you said 'we'." Vincent continued.

"Oh, umm, yeah, I meant the two of us, I mean we've been messing them up a bit lately and umm..."

"It's ok. Maybe we should work together. All of us, I mean." Andrew said, looking hopeful.

"You don't even have battle powers. You'd get knocked off if something serious happened." Vincent replied curtly.

"But...but I made a Blue Eyes!" Andrew protested.

"Make it again." Vincent challenged.

"I..." Andrew looked downcast.

"Umm...how come he was with you today?" Masuyo asked.

"I rescued him last night. Stayed here till this morning. We tried to see if he had powers but nothing showed up until that Blue-Eyes incident." Vincent replied.

"How is his Dream Drive?" Masuyo said.

"Intact. I tried to wake it up, but as I said, nothing's happened."

"Let me try." Masuyo walked up to Andrew. "You should be familiar with the sensation of someone moving into your Zero Zone. Just stay still." Holding his hand in front of him as if something was in it, Masuyo looked at his palm and blew forward. Blue dust from nowhere poofed outwards and fluttered around Andrew, who began to glow white again as the blue subsided.

"Even if that did anything," Vincent said, observing, "I doubt we'll know until we're in battle again."

"About that..." Masuyo mumbled, "If we're working together, I think we should stop being undercover."

Vincent raised his eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well," Masuyo continued, "If we keep working in secret, the DC will keep doing what it's doing, only looking at us as a side job. But if we really want to do anything, we have to draw them out too. So we should go public. At least, um...I think so..."

"Yeah, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Andrew asked. "If you're afraid of the press, you can just blow up all their cameras, right?"

Vincent started shuffling his deck, looking down. "If both of you feel like it, I'm outvoted."

"Alright!" Andrew said, jumping into the air. "Hold on, I'm going to go tell my mom." As he was running out of the room, Masuyo grabbed his arm.

"Wait... when I said public, I meant fight publicly. People can't know our actual identities or the DC will go after people related to us." Andrew's face fell at Masuyo's comment.

"What I meant was that we need to make ourselves look organized. Like there are more of us out there if we need them. Something that'll frighten the DC." Masuyo was steadily losing his nervous air, replacing it with one reminiscent of a mad scientist thinking up his next crazy experiment.

"All their monsters were shadowy..." Andrew said, thinking out loud. "So maybe something having to do with light?"

"How about the Photon Force?" Masuyo suggested. Andrew facefell and Vincent covered his eyes with his palm, making an 'ughhh' noise.

"Okay then..." Masuyo said, blushing. "How about...the Radiants?"

Both Andrew and Vincent pondered the idea. "...works." Vincent said. Andrew nodded in assent.

"So maybe now we should document everything we know about the DC..."

"Seven...hours..." Andrew said, twitching. "How do we know enough to write for seven...hours..."

"Well, it's not really that much..." Masuyo said. "We only have three pages of information..."

"That's less than a page every two hours! I write essays faster than that!" Andrew said, exploding.

"Shake it off. We have work." Vincent said, jumping out of the window.

"Is he always like this?" Masuyo asked. Andrew nodded, jumping out of the window after Vincent.

"You know, you're getting predictable." Vincent said, yet again in the park. "Do you target any other location besides this park?"

Two men in black let go of their targets – apparently a teenage couple, and looked up. "It's Red! Get him!"

Standing on top of a building, Vincent looked very heroic with the moon off to his side. "Not Red anymore. I am..." _"Do I really have to say this...?"_ he muttered to himself, "Ruby Radiant!" Vincent jumped down and started rushing the men.

"Yeah, Ruby Radiant? Well this time we're better prepared for you. Eat this!" One of the men held his right arm in front of him, charging his Dream Drive for what looked like it was intended to be an energy attack.

"**Blue Point Shot**!" A blue arrow shot from the sky and cracked the Drive open.

"No matter how prepared you are, you'll still lose in the end. Sapphire Radiant reporting in." Masuyo was standing very dramatically, balanced on top of a church spire with the moon directly behind him. He materialized another arrow and took aim.

"So they ARE working together!" the man with the undamaged Drive said. He didn't get a chance to do much as Masuyo shot him in the back of the neck, severing his connection with his Zero Zone with a strange whooshing noise.

"Uh..uh, oh man... I'm out of here!" whimpered the other man, turning tail and trying to flee. Vincent slashed his sword and a blade of red energy flew out, striking the man. With a cracking sound, the man's Zero Zone was shattered.

Applause echoed through the park. "Admirable... truly admirable." A third man's voice. Older, but a lot more sophisticated. "Yes, the two of you certainly have been causing me a lot of trouble as of late. But where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself!"

The ground started trembling and black tendrils of something vinelike shot up through the tiles of the pathway, wrapping around Vincent and Masuyo before either could react.

In a flash of black flame, a man materialized on top of the fountain. He was in a black suit, but unlike his lackeys, he wore a white shirt underneath. He wore a pair of half-moon, rimless glasses and his graying hair was combed neatly. "My name is Alexander Arland, one of the three maintainers of this continent, representative of the Dream Crisis organization."

He had yet to notice Andrew, who was hiding on top of the building Vincent had been standing on, watching the whole thing.

"My supervisor has ordered me to dispatch you, but I'd much rather put the two of you to good use. So, I'll make you an offer. You two can be my personal bodyguards and in return, I won't destroy you right now. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like...you're full of yourself." Vincent replied, trying to break his arms free of the plant.

"Ah, how rude... I offer you the choice of life and you spit in my face. Maybe this will change your mind." Alexander snapped his fingers and three shadowed figures poofed behind him. "You three... find some way of persuading Mr. Antoine here." He stepped back and the three forms scurried forward, holding their hands in front of him. An odd glow emanated from them and Vincent's eyes clouded over.

"No use... I already know what happened to him... no use..." Vincent started to mutter low under his breath.

"Hm. I see. As for you, my boy," Alexander said, turning his attention to Masuyo. "You have considerable power as well. And aim, which is something my men regrettably lack. Would you be interested in my offer?"

"Not if it means hurting innocent people..." Masuyo replied, masking his fear.

"Ah yes. Neither of you have any knowledge of the Dream Drive technology. We've run tests, dear boy. The Drive Assimilation process causes no pain unless the subject is currently in accordance with his Zero Zone. The only two who have managed to achieve this feat are the pair of you. So, no one is hurt." Alexander explained.

"That's not what I meant," Masuyo said, starting to choke as the vines slowly tightened their grip, "And you know it."

"Of course I do." Alexander replied. "I'm only demonstrating how little you know. How little you understand. I'll bet you can't even materialize anything solid for more than a moment unless it's in range of your Zero Zone. Your arrows disappear after they strike, which made it extremely difficult to track you down." Alexander said. "My men are, of course, completely incapable of such a feat, but you can plainly see that I am not, correct? So why not join me? I'll help you grow in your powers. Help you understand everything."

Masuyo managed to sneer, despite the grimaces of pain that were plastering themselves on his face. "I understand more than you know. Like how the Dream Drives you steal are amplified... You won't be able to finish us, not with tainted powers like that..." he laughed weakly.

"A challenge? Well, I'd invite you to watch the show, but then again... you _are_ the show." Alexander grinned darkly. A pistol appeared in his hands with a floral design along the barrel. "Even if you can't move, I should treat this as a gentleman's challenge, do you not agree?" Alexander turned around and paced forward three steps, turning back around. "Let's see if this bullet kills you, even if it isn't pure." Alexander fired.

From atop the building, Andrew had to use all of his will to stop himself from yelling out.

Masuyo looked up to meet the bullet. Two thin, blue, crackling beams of dartlike energy shot from his eyes, striking the bullet and dissipating its blackness. What remained vaporized into the air. "See?" he said mockingly. "Your own Dream Drive is pathetic. You have to have a supplement to do anything right."

Alexander's grin dried up into an expression of distaste. "Fine, whelp. I'll resort to a more traditional manner of killing you." The pistol morphed into a rapier, the handle of which was ornately engraved with a lotus. "You might be able to dissolve a bullet, but I doubt you can take out a sword, especially one that's sticking through your stomach!"

Alexander thrust forward. Masuyo blasted it with more eye beams, but the effect didn't work quite fast enough. The sword was unable to do much damage, but it pierced through slightly.

"That was something, wasn't it?" Alexander asked, now completely confident again. "I'll just keep this up as many times as necessary to take you out, while you grow weaker and weaker with every hit." Another rapier materialized in his hand.

"You're the weak one," Masuyo said through pain. "You're barely stronger than-" As he realized what he was doing, he immediately stopped talking.

"What's this?" Alexander asked, now interested.

_"Uh oh, he's going to find out about me!"_ Andrew said, unsure of what to do. He had materialized a monster in a card game, but what would that serve to do against someone trying to kill him? Vincent was still lost in his delusions, but even if he wasn't, he was still trapped in the strange vines. _"Well, if he finds me, I might as well try to fight back." _

"So, you're hiding someone. I'll bet he's here; you wouldn't risk leaving him vulnerable to one of our attacks. Well, well, well. I'll just feel around for any sort of power at all..." Alexander closed his eyes and spun around slowly a few times. "And..." he said, facing Andrew's direction (the latter swore under his breath), "Got him. Do you really think that little of me? I was barely able to detect that insect." He was now turned to face Masuyo again. "Ah well, it's of no consequence. I'll do away with you before I move on to...dessert."

He slowly moved back towards Masuyo with his rapier in hand.

_"Come on, come on, give me something..."_ Andrew felt something phasing in and out of his hand again, though he didn't dare to look.

"For what it's worth, you were powerful enough to merit my personal attendance." Three steps away, four at best.

_"What is this? A ruler?"_ Andrew asked himself, forcing himself to concentrate harder. Whatever was in his hand was longer than it was wide. It was definitely solid as well, which was a good sign.

"However, both you and your partner...and your pet, wherever he is, are through."

_"It's...a knife!"_ Andrew realized, his eyes widening. Knowing how he could save his friends, Andrew sprung up in the air, words coming to his mouth. "**White Edge Reflection**!" He hurled the knife downwards, grazing Alexander's hand and forcing him to release the rapier. As the knife dug itself into the ground, the reflections of the surrounding area became sharper and sharper, finally exploding into light which shot out of the knife, blinding everyone in the area. Alexander's rapier, the three shadowforms, and the tendrils holding Vincent and Masuyo in place all lost their shadow supplements and dissipated into the atmosphere.

The light died down to reveal Alexander scowling and looking up at Andrew. "You, you'll pay for this, boy. You're still weak, even if you've stopped my attack. Shadowforms, get rid of them!" Alexander turned and walked away, blurring back into the shadows. In his wake, seven large globs of black shadowy liquid fell from the sky, forming wide puddles on the ground. The puddles coalesced and sprung up to reveal feral-looking creatures who advanced upon Vincent, who was apparently still in a daze, and Masuyo, who was still hurt from Alexander's attack.

A knife shot through the air, impaling the creature at the front of the pack. Andrew jumped from the building he was on and landed in front of his partners. "I will stop you, this I swear... for I am Diamond Radiant!"

**End**

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Firstly, apologies to anyone who read this while it was cut off. doesn't like my file uploads, apparently. Secondly, in response to those of you who asked about why this is in Gx... Well, it has nothing more to do with the academy than it does with Yami, so does it really matter which one of the categories I put it in?

Also, you were introduced to Alexander in this chapter. I need more evil-type people like him for various roles. Submit ideas in my forum found under my pen name.

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	4. Key to the Diamond

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: **Zero Radiance **by Adriel Touchstone :

_Episode IV – Key to the Diamond_

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"Oh look. We're on TV." Masuyo said. Once again, the trio was back at Andrew's house. The news was running a story on the weird attacks that had been going on.

"So they finally realized all the attacks have been at the park..." Andrew said. Depicted on the monitor was an assortment of police, SWAT teams, National Guard units, and government officials investigating the park.

"Current analysis indicates that no weapon known to our society today could have caused a considerable percentage of the damage sustained by this area." said one official. "We are, of course, using all our available resources to investigate the nature of these activities."

"Idiots." Vincent said. "They won't be able to do anything against the DC."

"At least they're trying, though." Andrew replied.

"Admirable as the sentiment may be, it'll make it harder for us to train if this entire city is being watched." Masuyo mused. "And I'm still not confident about your powers, Andrew. They've shown themselves twice, now, but there was no transformation associated with either incident. And after all, it was Vincent who took out the shadowforms."

All three boys took a second to remember how Andrew's powers fizzled out after Alexander ran off. Luckily, Vincent came out of his trance and quickly did away with the shadow monsters.

"Yeah, I guess..." Andrew said, sighing. "But what can we really do? I can't go around trying to kill things, they'd lock me up right away."

"Against this Alex guy, I think you'd stand a fair chance of getting a duel... so maybe work on your deck?" Masuyo suggested.

"Come to think of it, we haven't seen yours yet." Vincent replied.

"Oh...right! So maybe me and Andrew have a duel?" Masuyo said.

"Alright, I'll go for that." Andrew said.

* * *

"Remember Andrew, you made a Blue Eyes. This time around, though, I think you should try and bring out your latent powers – make cards that are your own. The DC has a lot of money and now that they know we're challenging them with duelists, they'll be implanting their agents with knowledge of the game." Masuyo said, drawing five cards.

"They can do that?" Andrew asked, drawing six. "I'll take your word for it... and summon **Obnoxious Celtic Guard** to the field!" 1400/1200 A green-armored monster with a dark blue cloak appeared on the field. "This monster can't be destroyed by a monster with 1900 or more attack points, making it a great stall! I then set two cards face down and end my turn."

Masuyo drew. "You're right. It is a good way to prevent me from getting rid of your monster. However, I don't look to defeat your monster through sheer force." He slid a card into his disk. "I play the field spell card **Hall of Hypnosis**!"

All around the two duelists, the scenery became odd and distorted. An ominous ticking sound could be heard from an unknown source and the images of pocket watches of various sizes kept fading in and out.

"I now summon **Elegant Hypnotist**!" 1300/1000 A monster clad in a tuxedo with a black cape appeared on the field. "**Hall of Hypnosis** makes it impossible for this monster to be destroyed through battle, one-upping your monster. At any rate, it's time to show you what my deck can do and try to wake up your deck. Go, **Watch of Hypnosis**!" A golden pocket watch appeared in the hands of his monster. "I'll keep this out for insurance, not that it's necessary... but this card can act as a surrogate **Hall of Hypnosis** for an equipped monster, allowing it to access its effects... effects such as this one! _Reverse Dextrism_!"

Andrew watched as his monster switched its sword from its right hand to its left. "_Reverse Dextrism_ allows me to take your monster's weaker value and subtract it from the stronger and apply that number to either its attack or defense value. In this case, I choose attack." 200/1200 "And now I attack your monster with **Elegant Hypnotist**!" His monster swung its watch like a pendulum several times before it suddenly stopped as it was at its lowest point. A beam of yellow energy shot from the clock face and struck through Andrew's monster, continuing to hit him as well. (A LP: 2900)

Andrew was about to draw, but Masuyo stopped him. "Wait! If you draw like you must be thinking to draw right now, you'll only get one of your normal deck cards. You need to focus, need to bring out your inner radiance. You know you can do it now, so just believe in that!"

Andrew nodded hesitantly. "_I've never made up a card before... when I summoned the Blue Eyes, I knew exactly what I needed! But how can I just make up a card and expect it to be real if it doesn't even exist? I guess I have to try..."_ he drew and looked at his card. "_I guess I can only make a Blue Eyes..."_ he said to himself sadly, looking at the drawn **Paladin of White Dragon**.

"It doesn't work for me... sorry..." Andrew said in a low voice as he summoned **Cyber Harpie Lady**. 1800/1300 "But if I can still win with this deck, that should be good enough for now, right?" His two facedown cards flipped up. "I have to at least try! My first card is **Call of the Haunted**, reviving **Obnoxious Celtic Guard**, which I will be sacrificing to my second card, **White Dragon Ritual**. Come out, **Paladin of White Dragon**!" 1900/1200

Masuyo tried to look cheerful as his monster was clawed through, reformed in a burst of smoke, and slashed twice, reforming again. The life point counters drew even. (M LP: 2900) "It's alright. These things take time." He drew a card. "_Not this long, though... I had gotten control over my powers after only a few hours. It's been more than a day." _Masuyo placed his drawn card on his disk. "I play **Chant of Hypnosis – Supernaturality**. This card hypnotizes one of my own monsters, making it think it has supernatural abilities. I choose two abilities that are listed in this card's effect and during my end phase, that monster is then switched to defense mode until the end of my next battle phase. This time, I choose to let my monster attack twice in the same battle phase and also grant it 500 more attack points." 1800/1300

"Why would you..." Andrew trailed off as his Cyber Harpie switched its whip hand while his Paladin turned its swords upside down. 500/1300 700/1200

"As you can see, my monster has used Reverse Dextrism on both your monsters. Attack! Double Hypnotic Sleep!" Two more blasts of yellow light came out of the **Elegant Hypnotist**'s watch, striking both Andrew's monsters. (A LP: 500) "You understand that at this rate, you'll lose next turn. Why is this so difficult for you?"

Andrew's expression shifted to one of shame and suppressed anger. "It's not my fault... We don't even know that I'm supposed to have these powers. And I don't know how to make something come out of nothing, so how can you expect me to just...do it?"

"Because with what's at stake, you have to." Vincent said from behind the two.

"What do you mean? How can that possibly make this easier?" Andrew shouted.

"You're right. It doesn't. But it makes it more necessary. Unless you can do this," Vincent held up a card. Blade Knight. With a flash of red, it transformed into the Crimson Knight card. "You will surely fall to the DC."

"_I can't be weak..."_ Andrew said to himself, looking at his deck. "_I have to show them that I can be strong, too."_ He was surprised as he felt the sleeves of his white shirt change texture. They changed back almost instantly. "_Power...the need for power? Is that the trigger?"_ He searched his mind. The Blue Eyes had appeared when he needed to win a duel. The knife had appeared when he needed to be stronger than Alexander. "_Alright...power."_ He looked up from his deck at Masuyo and Vincent. "You're right. I need to have a powerful deck to defeat the DC. My purpose is pure, so I deserve this power! So I claim it now!" As he drew, a white trail of light followed the card.

"_This isn't exactly what I was expecting, but it's a step in the right direction."_ He placed the card in his disk, white light spurting out of the card slot. "I play the spell **Key to the Diamond**! This card revives one monster in my graveyard with the dormant power of my radiance!" Andrew's paladin returned to the field and grasped the diamond key that was hovering in front of it. The dragon it was riding on disappeared and the warrior's skin changed to the same pale blue tone. "This is... **White Paladin Phase 1**!" 1900/1200 Andrew was caught by surprise as the two cards in his hand flashed and morphed.

"I also play the field spell card **Diamond Aether**!" The strange effects from **Hall of Hypnosis** disappeared, replaced by a thin, glittering white mist. "While this card is on the field, I can draw one additional card in my draw phase for each diamond-powered monster on my field, and I can at any time discard a card from my hand to negate one part of a card's effect, as long as that part affects a diamond-powered monster."

Masuyo was smiling openly, while Vincent was being slightly more internal. However, the same thought lurked at the back of their minds... "_Key to the Diamond is still a wildcard. He had time to focus and was under no stress to create it. While we've seen him work miracles under pressure, we'll need to put him through more tests to make sure he's aptly in control."_

"This begins my strikeback! Paladin, attack his hypnotist with _Diamond Dance_!" His monster crouched low to the ground and jumped up, raising its swords above it. As it fell, it brought its blades down, slashing the hypnotist. It then brought them up in an X-shape and spun around once, slashing horizontally. Each slash erupted in white light and the hypnotist dissolved. Andrew's monster teleported back to its proper side of the field. (M LP: 1000)

"Wait, 1000 life points?" Masuyo asked out loud, caught off-guard.

"Yes. To replace the lost ability to call a Blue Eyes to the field, my monster now deals the attack of a monster it destroys in damage to you, in addition to normal battle damage." Andrew replied, ending his turn.

Masuyo drew, well aware that his monster would not return since the **Hall of Hypnosis** had been destroyed.

"Good move. Then I'll simply set this monster face down and end my turn."

Andrew pulled a card from his deck. "_Aw man, I guess Key to the Diamond only affects the cards I had in my hand when I played it... still, I can use this to discard if he gets another hypnotist out."_ "**White Paladin**, attack that facedown!"

His monster leapt up and fell horizontally at the card, spinning rapidly. The card was slashed through, revealing a young boy in a tuxedo far too big for him. The boy exploded in white light. (M LP: 200)

"The card you destroyed was **Novice Hypnotist**. This card allows me to either add a spell from my graveyard to my hand or to summon a level four or lower hypnotist from my deck to my field. In this case I'll summon another **Elegant Hypnotist** to the field, in attack mode." 1300/1000

Gritting his teeth, Andrew opted to try and remain on the bright side. "I end my turn."

Masuyo drew calmly. "Alright. I might not be able to use _Reverse Dextrism_ since I don't have a Hall or Watch, but I still have my array of spells to use on you. And while you can negate two of them since you have two cards, I have four cards in my hand. Go, double Chants!" Inserting two of his cards in his disk, Masuyo commanded his monster to target the White Paladin. Twice, Andrew discarded, and twice, his monster was enveloped in the Aether. "Now you have no way of defending yourself. I activate **Chant of Hypnosis – Sleep**. Your monster's attack power is reduced to zero!"

The paladin slumped down onto its knees, leaning slightly forward, apparently asleep. "**Elegant Hypnotist**, win this battle for me!" Masuyo's monster waved its hands oddly and a pulse of energy flew out at Andrew's monster, who crossed its swords in front of itself. As the blast shattered, so seemingly did the paladin.

"What's going on?" Masuyo demanded.

"Phase monsters function similarly to Level monsters." Andrew replied. "To advance to second phase, a monster needs to have been targeted three different times. Even though two of your cards were negated, it was still targeted by them, so that was two. Your third chant sealed it. My monster evolves to Phase 2!"

The paladin's armor grew to cover its stomach area, a long tail grew out of the base of its spine, and its cape became longer. It started to levitate slightly and its swords flashed, blades turning gold. **White Paladin Phase 2 **2400/1400

"The duel is now mine! Paladin, counterattack!" Andrew's monster rose further into the air and crossed its swords, points towards Masuyo. From their intersection a crackling bolt of silver energy crashed into Masuyo's hypnotist, obliterating it just like its brother.

"Congratulations, Andrew. It looks like your deck is finally starting to grow into itself." (M LP: 0) "_Let's see how long it'll last..."_

Both players switched off their disks and put their decks away. "So what now?" Andrew asked.

Vincent walked out from under the shade of a tree. "You accessed your powers directly in a duel and now we see if you can do it outside of a duel."

"Wha-" Andrew didn't get a chance to formulate a sentence as Vincent's sword was suddenly aimed at his throat.

"We have enough control over our powers to be able to fight you without killing you." Masuyo replied, backflipping into Vincent's tree. "And your powers aren't developed to a point where they can really hurt us."

Andrew backed up but stopped as an arrow landed at his foot. "Uh..." he said.

"This isn't-" Vincent said before being cut off as something tackled him.

A blue arrow pierced the creature, which dissipated into smokelike shadow. "We're not safe anymore. Alexander has scouts looking for our energy signals." Masuyo said, jumping down from the tree.

"But that means..." Andrew said as several pools of shadow spawned. Out of each pool jumped one of Alexander's beastlike shadowforms.

"So much for the training," Vincent said, transforming. The area around him grew dark with the appearance of a dingy city, Vincent standing in the middle of a block of skyscrapers. He ran forward in the street and jumped into the air, swinging his sword in a vertical arc. It left several afterimages, each one disbanding into several strings of red light. These strings shot into the sky as Vincent landed, crashing down on him as a bolt of red lightning, also destroying the buildings around him. When the light dissipated, Vincent was standing in his armor in the middle of the fiery ruins.

"Try not to die, kid." Masuyo added. All of a sudden, he was standing on the surface of a small pond in what looked like a Shinto temple. The moon was shining above. Masuyo materialized his bow and arrow and fired at the moon. A column of blue light radiated downwards and illuminated him. It grew in intensity until Masuyo could no longer be seen. The waters of the pond blew away in a spiral and the light dissipated, revealing Masuyo in his Radiant costume. A breeze of cherry blossom petals blew past his face.

"_They're ignoring me again..." _Andrew said to himself, watching the two of them attack the shadowforms. Out of the corner of his eye, Andrew spied a dark figure moving slowly about. "_My chance!"_ he said, trying to materialize a knife. Nothing happened and the figure started to stealthily close in on Masuyo and Vincent. "Stupid powers..." he muttered in a resigned tone. "Watch out!" he shouted, pointing directly at the figure.

On reflex, Masuyo shot an arrow and Vincent blasted a beam of red energy at their new target. It jumped out of the way and landed in front of Andrew. "You know, my boy, that wasn't a very polite thing to do."

"Neither is sneaking up on those guys while your lackeys do all the work...Alexander." Andrew replied.

"Ah, so you know my name. Weren't you the one who swore to take me down? Diamond Radiant, I recall?" Alexander said in the same tone used when one speaks to a child.

"Yeah, well... my powers have been glitchy lately." Andrew lied.

"That's unfortunate... as a gentleman, I would give you time to recover so we could have an honorable fight, but as a representative of the Dream Crisis organization, I'm afraid I have to take advantage of your temporary weakness and kill you." His black rapier appeared in his right hand. "You understand, of course."

Andrew raised his DuelDisk in response. "As a gentleman, you'll accept my challenge to a duel, right?" Not waiting for an answer, he slid his deck into its slot. "Sorry for not having a glove on hand...excuse the pun."

"My boy, there would be no honor in my defeating you in a duel. You're still a child." Alexander replied.

"Then how about making it a three on one?" Vincent asked. He and Masuyo had both materialized DuelDisks on their arms, having dispatched all of the shadowforms.

"And you consider that fair?" Alexander asked.

"Then make it a three on three." Masuyo replied. "Call in some of your agents or something."

Alexander dissipated his rapier and stroked his chin in thought. "Hmm...alright. I accept." Snapping his fingers, two agents appeared next to him, each with a loaded Dream Drive cannon. "A three on three duel, men." The agents both grinned darkly and all three men materialized black DuelDisks on their arms, decks appearing in a puff of black smoke.

"Duel!"

**End  
**

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Sorry for updating a bit late in the day, but I overslept. In response to a question of Andrew attaining his powers easily, this chapter shows that they don't work on command, per se. Andrew got his deck to half-function by focusing on his drive for power, but he still doesn't grasp the concept he needs to understand to access them completely.

Submit characters!

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	5. Weed Problems

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: **Zero Radiance **by Adriel Touchstone :

_Episode V – Weed Issues_

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Each player drew five cards, Alexander drawing a sixth. "I'm sure you all respect seniority, right?" The three radiants half-nodded in reply. "Glad to see that some sense of propriety still remains.

"Well then, shall we? I'll start off by summoning **Shade the Lotus** in attack mode." 0/500 A fairly large lotus flower appeared in front of Alexander, flower yet to bloom. "I'll then set a card face down and end my turn. I think it fair that one of your team takes the next turn."

"Those are the rules, old man." Masuyo said, drawing. "**Hall of Hypnosis** and **Elegant Hypnotist **in attack mode!" 1300/1000 Masuyo's two cards both activated. As his monster appeared, standing elegantly, the field around the six warped oddly and a ticking sound became audible. "Back to your side."

One of Alexander's agents drew a card. "I summon **Dark Nutrient **to the field." 700/700 A black collection of minerals appeared on the field. "I then play the spell card **Nutrient X**." A black capsule appeared on the field. "This card is unique among the nutrients, for it allows me to convert cards in my deck to either life points as is standard, or attack points on my monster – 100 for each card discarded to the graveyard. I discard 34 cards!"

Andrew gasped as the agent discarded his entire deck to the graveyard, his monster's attack points rising to 4100. "Then from my hand I play the spell **Magic Shard Excavation**. This card allows me to discard two cards from my hand to return one spell to my hand. One of the cards I discarded was **Nectar of Darkness** which, when put into the graveyard, allow me to add a card from my graveyard to my hand." The agent placed two cards from his graveyard into his hand, bringing his hand count to three.

"I now play the two **Déjà vu** spell cards in my hand, allowing me to return ten cards from my graveyard to my deck." Twenty cards returned to his deck. "I then replay the **Nutrient X** that I returned to my hand from **Magic Shard Excavation**." Twenty cards left his deck again, leaving him with no hand, no deck, and a monster with 6100 attack points.

"Finally, I equip my **Dark Nutrient** to my commander's **Shade the Lotus**. The effect of **Dark Nutrient** is that when equipped to a plant-type monster, that monster gains **Dark Nutrient**'s attack points."

The minerals spread across the ground that the lotus flower was resting on and were absorbed into it. A strange symbol appeared on one of the lotus' petals. "The first effect of **Shade the Lotus** is that whenever it is equipped with a card, that card is destroyed and any bonuses it granted my monster become permanent." 6100/500

"I end my turn." the agent said.

Andrew drew. "This is ridiculous. So you tricked me into a three on three duel in order for you to just leech off of your partners?" he accused. "_Yes!"_ he mentally said to himself, looking at the card drawn. "Unfortunately, that plan backfired for you! I play **Graceful Charity**, drawing three cards and discarding two.

"Next I play **Key to the Diamond**, reviving **Paladin of White Dragon** as **White Paladin Phase 1**!" 1900/1200 Andrew's monster was no longer on its dragon, its skin color now the same as its dragon's used to be.

Just like last time, Andrew's hand cards morphed. He took a moment to look them over. "I set three cards face down and end my turn."

The last of Alexander's agents drew. "I also summon **Dark Nutrient** to the field!" 700/700

"This can't be right..." Andrew said as the agent executed the exact same move that his partner had. "Can it? They have to be cheating!"

Vincent shook his head. "Their sole purpose in existence seems to be supplementing Alexander in duels. Their Dream Drives have probably been tampered with..."

The lotus was now the size of a small house and had moved to behind Alexander. 12,200/500

"End turn." the agent said.

Vincent drew. "I summon **Crimson Knight** to the field in defense mode and equip it with **Crimson Shield**." 1400 /1000 + 1000 Vincent's avatar monster appeared, crouching behind its shield. The three radiants watched in surprise as a red glow illuminated Alexander's lotus for a second, its defense points rising by 1000. "End turn." Vincent said, no counter to this surprise.

Alexander drew. "Ah, the rush of a good duel..." He flipped his facedown card face up. "**Root System** can only be activated when I have a plant sub-type monster on the field. I can sacrifice life points to add to its attack points. Additionally, for the rest of the duel, all our graveyards are treated as one. However, I don't intend to use it yet... I activate two spell cards, **Mutual Agreement** and **Forked Magic**." The first of his cards displayed a contract with two signatures, while the second displayed a stream of magic hitting some sort of pole and splitting, then flying off in opposite directions. "**Mutual Agreement** lets me declare a number of life points, as long as that number won't finish off the target player...I'll get to this in a second. That number is divided by 400 and rounded up. Then, I choose a player to give me that many life points. Then, they draw the smaller number in cards. **Forked Magic**, meanwhile, allows me to discard a card from my hand to give the effect of a card to two players instead of one. The number I declare is 3999 and the players I choose are my two agents."

Alexander's life points rose to 11,998. His agents both lost by deck out. "Now for **Root System**. I tribute all but 1 of my life points to add that number to my monster!" 24,197/1500 The lotus grew even larger behind Alexander. "And time to reveal the power of my monster. You see, when this monster attacks, it attacks all targets on my opponent's side of the field. Usually this problem is offset by Lotus' natural ability to retain all bonuses given to it, plus the ability to copy all stat bonuses given to my opponent's monsters, as you saw with that **Crimson Knight**. This, however, is a more direct method. Lotus, attack them all!"

The lotus flower suddenly bloomed and three vines shot out of its core, aimed at each other monster on the field.

A card on Andrew's side of the field flipped face-up. "**Diamond Lattice** allows me to switch one of my Diamond monsters to defense mode in order to turn your monster's attack points to zero for the battle phase!" The tables had suddenly turned. Vincent grinned despite himself.

The vines, however, had other plans as they redirected themselves and wrapped around Andrew's card, blocking its effect. Three vines exactly half the diameters of the originals shot out, flying towards the original targets. "The reason I gave my monster so much power," Alexander said calmly, "Is that I can halve its attack points to completely negate a spell or trap." 12,099/1500

Reacting quickly, a second card flipped up on Andrew's side of the field. "A second **Diamond Lattice**!" And once more, the vines snared his trap and three more shot out. 6050/1500

"Something tells me even you aren't lucky enough to have drawn three of your traps." Alexander said confidently.

"Fair enough." Andrew replied. "The other card I set is **Kickback Trap**. Don't bother negating it – its effect is the same as your monster's negation ability. It cuts your lotus' attack points in half." 3025/1500

"Still, it's enough to eliminate your monsters." Alexander replied, watching his monster diminish in size before continuing its attack. All three monsters were speared through, Masuyo also taking 1725 damage. (M LP: 2275) "Congratulations, however, on preventing me from delivering a one-turn kill, Andrew." Alexander said, applauding lightly. "I'll set these two cards and end my turn."

Masuyo drew. "Fortunately, the effect of **Hall of Hypnotism** prevents my monster from being destroyed as a result of battle." He looked his hand over – five cards. Vincent had four and Andrew two. Alexander's hand was completely empty.

"With no options left, this is our chance for a strikeback!" he said, playing three cards. "**Chant of Hypnosis – Sleep** reduces your monster's attack to zero, though I know you'll use its effect to halve its attack and negate my card." Alexander obliged, his monster's attack falling to an unimpressive 1513. "**Chant of Hypnosis – Supernaturality** lets me give my monster two of three effects - I'll give it 500 more attack points and let it attack twice. Even at such a low attack value, you're still forced to negate my card." Again, Alexander's monster shrunk 757. "My second supernaturality will also be negated, but by my calculations, your monster's attack has fallen to only 379. Using _Reverse Dextrism_ would only be detrimental to me right now, so I'll just attack!"

Masuyo's hypnotist waved its hands and a pulse of invisible energy flew out, shredding Alexander's lotus. "The duel is over!"

Alexander started to laugh. "Is that what you think? **Poison of the Old Man** gives me 1200 life points before I lose...921 of them, what an odd value, don't you think?" (Al LP: 279)

As Andrew pulled a card, Alexander's lotus appeared back on the field with 3025 attack points. "Did you notice that **Root System** never disappeared? It lets me pay half my life points to destroy it. Then, I can resummon a plant sub-type monster to my side of the field that was destroyed through battle during the last turn. It returns as it was at the beginning of that turn."

"Doesn't matter!" Andrew replied. "**Carbon Paper** lets me do two things. Firstly, I can pay 500 life points to revive a monster from my graveyard for the turn. I can also copy the effect of one monster on the field and give it to one of my monsters. I copy **Elegant Hypnotist**'s _Reverse Dextrism_ and give it to my revived **White Paladin Phase 1**, marking two actions that have targeted my monster. I then attack your monster, using the technique I acquired!" **Shade the Lotus**' attack fell to 1525, its boosted defense serving to harm it rather than help it. Andrew's monster slashed it through, each cut glowing white before the lotus exploded into plant matter again. (Al LP: 2004)

"Wait, what?" Andrew asked, looking at Alexander's life points.

"I activated the trap **Lotus Blessings**, doubling the attack of a monster on your side of the field in exchange for me setting a card on my side of the field from my graveyard. This time, I chose your monster, giving it 3800 attack points instead of 1900. Then I activated my set card, **Nutrient Z**, to give myself 4000 life points before your attack got through."

"Still," Andrew said, his monster slashing at Alexander. "The effect of my monster is that it deals the attack of the monster it destroys as damage to your life points. And according to the effect of Carbon Paper, if my monster destroys another monster as a result of battle, it gets to stay on the field, though the copied effect does wear off." (Al LP: 479)

Vincent drew. "Nothing left, Alexander. Surrender."

Alexander waved Vincent on. "You'll find I'm far from done."

Accepting the challenge, Vincent placed a card on his disk. "**Crimson Ranger** in attack mode!" 1250/1400 A monster in a red cloak appeared on the field with a longbow in hand. "I attack you directly."

The monster shot a red arrow from its bow which collided with a large pill that had appeared on Alexander's side of the field, cracking it and spraying its contents all over Alexander. "The trap card **Nutrient Y**." he explained. "In the case of a direct attack, before your attack goes through, I gain the attack of all attack-mode monsters on the field as life points." (Al LP: 479 + 1300 + 1900 + 1250 – 1250 3679)

"End turn." Vincent said.

Alexander drew and smiled. "My Lotus was my warmup to test your skills. Now, however, we'll try for something a little more higher-powered. Since I have a copy of **Nutrient X, Nutrient Y, **and **Nutrient Z** in my graveyard, I can remove them all to special summon this card, **Nutrient Absorbing Deathleaf**!" ? A monster that looked like a giant tree with black leaves and six giant pills in place of fruit appeared on the field.

As he was about to protest, as Alexander never used Nutrient X, Masuyo remembered the effect of **Root System** – all graveyards in play were merged, assumedly including the two agents who were out of the game.

"Deathleaf's attack and defense are equal to 900 times the number of nutrient cards in the graveyard. Now let's count... My agents each had three copies of **Nutrient X** in their decks, to heighten the probability that they would have one such card on their first draw. That's six. Added to my used up **Nutrient Y** and **Nutrient Z**, that makes eight. Therefore, my monster's stats become 7200 each."

"And its other effects?" Andrew demanded, knowing there was more to the monster.

"My monster allows me to remove nutrient cards from my graveyard to activate their effects without the costs, only the boost also goes to my monster's attack points for that turn." Alexander said. "Furthermore, I can remove a nutrient card from my graveyard to prevent Deathleaf from being destroyed."

"_How the heck are we supposed to win now?"_ Masuyo thought to himself. "_All our monsters are in attack mode, so one of us is going to lose now..."_ then he had an idea. "Alexander," he said. "I can hardly believe that someone who's supposed to be so honorable would just continue to throw down these overpowered monsters without giving his opponents an actual chance to fight back."

Alexander looked at Masuyo for a second. "What are you getting at?" he asked.

"All I'm saying is that you're playing a game with a bunch of kids and you're acting like some playground bully. There's nothing at all professional with what you're doing... you even sacrificed your two partners just to make yourself stronger."

"Your point?" Alexander asked.

"You're not a gentleman." Masuyo replied curtly.

Alexander's eye twitched a few times. "What do you suggest? There's not much any of you can do to stop me at this point."

"Figure it out yourself." Masuyo replied.

Alexander thought to himself for a moment. Andrew and Vincent watched tensely, while Masuyo was fairly sure of what he was doing. "Alright." Alexander replied. "I'll skip my attack for the turn."

Masuyo smiled. "Workable." He exchanged a meaningful glance with Vincent. Then, both he and Vincent looked at Andrew, who felt a strange sensation. Focusing hard, Masuyo drew, a slight smile coming to his face. "I set a card face down, switch my monster to defense mode, and end my turn."

Andrew drew. "What card is this?" he asked before setting it in his DuelDisk. "I was going to save this for later, but I equip my monster with **Diamond Cutter**. It gives my monster 700 more attack points and lets it automatically destroy any defense monster it battles with. Also, this is the third action that has targeted my monster. So now it levels up to **White Paladin Phase 2**!" The paladin's armor grew to cover its stomach area, a long tail grew out of the base of its spine, and its cape became longer. It started to levitate slightly and its sword blades turned to gold. 2400+700/1400 "**Diamond Cutter** is special because it accompanies my monster as it increases in phase. I also switch my new monster into defense mode, ending my turn."

Vincent looked at his deck, taking his card and setting it before even looking at it. "**Crimson Ranger** switches to defense mode and my turn ends."

Alexander drew. "You've had your chance to prepare. I equip my monster with the card I just drew, **Overthorn**. It lets my monster deal damage through defense and also lets me pay 600 life points for an additional attack. I'll activate the effect of my monster, tributing **Nutrient Y** to gain 7200 life points and double my monster's attack points before it loses 900 from the loss of the nutrient." One of the pills hanging from Deathleaf's branches cracked open. Al LP: 10,879 **Deadleaf** 13,500/6300 "Andrew, I start with you."

A thorny, leafless branch shot up from the top of the tree and flew forward, flying at Andrew's monster.

"Reveal **Diamond Radiance**! This card activates when your monster has over three times the current attack points of the targeted monster. My monster attacks your monster, though the attack results in no battle damage and my monster's attack points are subtracted from your monster's attack points. I attack until your monster has no more attack points. You take damage equal to the number of attacks squared, times 400. Then in my end phase, my monster is destroyed."

"In response," Alexander said, "I sacrifice **Nutrient Z**, giving me 4000 life points and giving my monster 3100 net attack points." (Al LP: 14,879) "I also sacrifice **Nutrient X** to prevent my monster from being destroyed." **Deadleaf **15,700/4500 "So you see, I'll be safe at the end of this."

Vincent and Masuyo both grinned.

"Reveal **Ruby Radiance**!"

"Reveal **Sapphire Radiance**!"

"WHAT!" Alexander shouted, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"**Ruby Radiance** activates when your monster has over twice the attack points of the targeted monster's base stats. Your monster is destroyed and you take the current attack points of the targeted monster in damage. In the end phase, the targeted monster is destroyed."

"**Sapphire Radiance** activates when your monster would deal over 3000 points of damage in one attack. Your monster is destroyed instead and all the damage from battle goes to you. Then in the end phase, our monster is destroyed."

"By the way," Vincent said. "The Radiance cards chain oddly. If something would happen in the chain to prevent them from activating properly, their damage effects still trigger. So there's no escaping this."

Alexander knew that Vincent was right. Using more nutrients to power up his monster would make matters worse. Even if he prevented its destruction by using up nutrients, that still wouldn't save him. So he merely stood stoically as thousands of points of damage washed over him. (Al LP: 0)

"Congratulations. It seems I underestimated you." Alexander said as Andrew's monster exploded in brilliant light. "Next time I'll be more serious...and I won't fall for that trick again, Sapphire Radiant." He disappeared in a burst of shadow.

"Those cards... they were like that card you used the first night I met you!" Andrew said to Vincent.

"If you were able to materialize one, it might mean that your powers are finally setting in." Andrew looked at his cards. Though most of them had reverted to his old cards, **White Paladin Phase 1** was not changing back.

"Finally..." Andrew said. "Now all I want to do is go home and rest. I'm really tired...but I can't wait to tell my friends at-"

"Tell who?" Vincent said suspiciously. "You can't tell anyone. You know that."

"No...well, yeah, I guess I forgot that, but I just remembered..." he said, face pale.

**End**

**- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -**

Okay, sorry this was late. I forgot I had a trip over the weekend, visiting William & Mary and also going to Busch Gardens. The duel was a bit rushed because I had to finish it last night and I was not quite in my proper state of mind. This duel was an experiment for later - I haven't really written that much with 8052287452985792472396529528935 attack point monsters. I don't care to do it again any time soon because I didn't feel that this was really a good chapter, so I do apologize, both for its lateness and its poor quality.

On a more fun note! As you can see, I've decided to include Andrew's schooling as part of the storyline, mostly for humor. Submit classmates and teachers. It's not Duel Academy, but as this is the yugioh universe, I do want the school to have a dueling class. I'll figure out some good way of explaining it later. So, submit ideas for the professor if you want. Wolf gets priority cause I still haven't gotten a character submission from him and I'm trying to prod him in that direction :P

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	6. Back to School

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: **Zero Radiance **by Adriel Touchstone :

_Episode VI – Back to School_

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As Andrew walked the few blocks to school, he found himself unable to think of the homework he had hastily done, unable to recall any of the things he would need to know for his math exam. All he could think about was the past few days – it was only Friday night that he had first met Vincent. The next day, there was another attack and they met Masuyo, later running into Alexander. On Sunday, they tried to train but were again interrupted by Alexander. And now, Andrew had to go back to something as mundane as school... making sure not to let anyone on to the fact that he was one of the people involved in the strange events that had decimated the park.

Before he knew it, he was at the doors of his school. "_Here goes,"_ he said, walking into the air-conditioned lobby and navigating the corridors to his first class of the day.

"Good morning, students!" the professor said cheerily. "I hope you all got a good night's sleep in preparation for today's exam!" In his arms was a rather large stack of tests.

"_Hah. I wish."_ Andrew said, mentally checking if he still remembered how to add.

* * *

"This is boring." Masuyo said, reading a book. He and Vincent were at Masuyo's house, since Andrew was out.

"Why aren't you at school?" Vincent asked.

"Mom said there's a power outage at my school cause whatever happened to the park knocked some of the lines loose. Why aren't _you_ at school?" Masuyo replied, turning a page.

"I graduated already." Vincent answered.

"...oh." Masuyo said.

* * *

Andrew's head fell onto his desk, the dull thud reverberating through Andrew's skull. "Ow.." Andrew muttered.

"Hey, it wasn't _that_ bad," a voice called, its owner sauntering up to Andrew. "As long as you remembered the binomial expansion theorem, you're guaranteed to at least have gotten a B."

"This coming from the dumb jock..." Andrew replied, looking up. Though the remark could sometimes sting, it was a running joke between Andrew and the other boy, Aaron Lerien. Aaron was much stronger and several inches taller than Andrew, though the two were close friends – Aaron was a bit closeted about his dueling skills and Andrew had agreed not to tell everyone about it. In the school, there were primarily two classes of people – duelists and non-duelists. All the duelists talked about nothing except the game, while the non-duelists talked about nothing except the duelist population. Andrew had previously belonged to the duelist group, but his affiliation with Aaron gave him a unique go-between status.

"Well if I'm the dumb jock, what does that make you if you don't even remember the binomial expansion theorem?" Aaron asked. Andrew merely grunted.

"Anyway, you better hurry up. Your next class is history, right? That witch hates it when people are late." Aaron said, walking out the door. Exhaling, Andrew stood up and collected his belongings, walking the annoyingly long route from the sciences department to the humanities department.

* * *

"You know this is a bad idea." Vincent said in his trademark calm tone.

"No it's not..." Masuyo said. He was in the kitchen with various liquids, semiliquids, powders, and chemicals.

"You're attempting to create something you read about in a science fiction book. It's a bad idea."

"It's a sound theory. Everyone knows that vinegar and baking soda react because of their opposing pH values. So, by creating compounds that are very acidic or very basic and also gaseous at room temperature, you can get an explosive that weighs almost nothing. He dumped half a cup of orange juice into a pot that already had vinegar and nail polish remover in it. "The citric acid in orange juice added to the acetic acid in vinegar and nail polish remover will be good acidic substances."

"...and the base?" Vincent asked, half-wishing he hadn't, even before Masuyo replied.

"Well, I started with chalk dust...and I don't really remember what else I put in..." Masuyo said, turning up the heat under both pots.

"This is a bad idea." Vincent said once more.

"No it's not!" Masuyo said, exasperated. "I'm only going to let this stuff boil a little bit, to test how the fumes react."

"..."

* * *

"Today, class," the history professor started, opening her teacher's copy of the student textbook, "We will be reviewing the effect of tariffs on diplomatic relations." She started writing on the board, speaking as she wrote.

"_This is such a waste of time..."_ Andrew thought, letting his mind wander. He was trying to think of new ways to fight the DC, better methods of attack. Suddenly, something hit him rather hard in the head. Andrew opened up the note. "_How was your weekend?"_ the note said. Andrew looked around, his eyes meeting those of his classmate Doris. He gave her a look before scrawling something on the paper; "_Did you have to fold that so sharp?"_ He threw it back.

Doris giggled hesitantly, her pale face lighting up a bit. She was closer to Andrew's height and weighed less than he did, though people often accused her of being fat because of the clothes she wore, which were too tight. The popular girls always laughed, calling Doris a wannabe whose clothes matched her status. Doris' mother was the image of beauty, though these genes didn't completely pass down to the next generation. Doris' clothes, on the other hand, weren't designer, so the fact that they were too tight seemed to the popular girls as Doris' attempt to look attractive. To get away from all of this, Doris was active in many academic organizations, holding leadership roles in most of them. Andrew, however, was her primary obsession. This was why she risked losing face with the teacher just to ask Andrew how his weekend was, instead of waiting until after class.

Ignoring whatever tariffs seemed to have caused a war that spanned across an ocean, the two continued to pass notes. The professor was too absorbed in her work to notice.

As class ended and the students left, a voice over the PA made an announcement; "Students, this is your principal speaking. Classes are cancelled for the rest of the day due to an explosion in the nearby area. Please report to either the auditorium or the gymnasium – students are by no means to leave school grounds until the police declare otherwise."

Shrugging off his notion of what the explosion could have been, Andrew walked to the auditorium with the rest of his schoolmates. "_If it's the DC, Vincent and Masuyo can handle it... I can't afford to destroy my normal life in order to fight them."_

_

* * *

_

"Egh, my book..." Masuyo said.

"I told you it was a bad idea." Vincent replied scathingly. He and Masuyo were hiding in a tree. Firemen were spraying the side of the latter's house and policemen were blocking off the area.

"Any ideas?" Masuyo asked helplessly.

Vincent sighed. "There's only one way out of this..." Two flashes of light erupted from the tree; one red and one blue. The two of them, now Ruby and Sapphire Radiant, jumped out of the tree and landed at the feet of the police.

"FREEZE! Down on the ground now, hands behind your backs!" shouted one of the cops. His partners joined him, all four of them aiming their guns at Vincent and Masuyo, who had transformed.

"Wait, we're not-" Masuyo said, walking towards the cops. One of them fired and Masuyo shot out two of his eyebeams, vaporizing the bullet. "Listen, we're-" the cops began to open fire. Vincent was relatively safe, as the bullets couldn't even dent his armor, but Masuyo had to run around, dodging bullets left and right.

"We're not the perpetrators." Vincent said, ignoring the gunfire. "However, we do know who did this."

"Why should we believe you!" one of the cops shouted.

Sighing, Vincent materialized his sword. "Does this look like an explosive?" he asked.

"...no...but you could be an accomplice! We have no guarantee that your blue friend over there is..." the man trailed off as Masuyo materialized his bow and shot the ground, the arrow simply disappearing.

"Alright. We're listening."

* * *

"Hey, have you heard the stories about the weird things that've been going on?" Aaron asked. He, Andrew, and Doris were sitting in the auditorium, whiling off time until they could go home.

"Uhh...no..." Andrew said, growing a bit uncomfortable.

"Come on, you have to have heard something, Andrew!" Doris said, scooting a bit closer to him.

"Not at all..." Andrew said, trying to be smooth.

"The park?" Aaron asked. "Come on, you can't be _that_ dumb, right? It's totally demolished!"

"Oh, well I knew that," Andrew said, "But I thought you meant something that _wasn't_ so obvious!" he was starting to sweat a bit.

"Yeah, like the kinds of damages incurred at the park." Doris said. "I haven't actually seen it, but I read that forensics can't identify the cause of the damage. It seems to be unique. Personally, I think the military was testing some sort of new weapon and set it off by accident before they could set proper coordinates."

"I hope it isn't terrorists." Aaron said in a hushed voice. "That kind of thing always gets everyone riled up..."

"Well, that's one way you can put it..." Andrew said, thinking about the DC and their strange black energy rays.

"What?" Doris asked.

"Oh. Uh, I was just talking to myself." Andrew said quickly.

"No, you said 'that's one way you can put it.'" she replied. "What do you know? Your family works for the feds, right? Come on, you can tell us..." she said, now almost in Andrew's lap.

"No, really, it was nothing! I'm just as clueless as you two!" Andrew said.

"You don't sound like it..." Aaron muttered, eyeing Andrew oddly.

Another announcement came over the PA. "Students, this is your principal again. The police have informed me that they found two witnesses to the event. The explosion was the result of an underground new-age terrorist organization, though the authorities still can't understand why the target of the attack was the residence of a suburban family. However, we will still attempt to finish the day. Lunch will be from 12:15 to 12:35 and break will be 10 minutes long"

Andrew smacked his forehead. "_Those idiots!"_ he mentally said, getting up.

"Now I'm sure that you know something!" Doris said.

"No, I was just...uh... annoyed that the cops can't figure it out." Andrew covered.

"Well, whatever," Doris said, giving up for the moment. "But make sure you tell me everything later." she said, winking.

"_This is ridiculous..."_ Andrew thought to himself.

* * *

"This is ridiculous..." Vincent said, looking at the TV. The two had broken into Andrew's room and were watching his rather small television with the volume nearly inaudible. The police had branded the DC as a terrorist organization, which was kind of true, but at the same time were suggesting tactics akin to those that would be used when the threat of nuclear war was imminent. Such plans wouldn't work when the organization was not openly radical in its beliefs and didn't even need to pose a physical threat to do what it wanted.

"Well at least we might get some backup now." Masuyo mused. "If the military and stuff is on this now, it makes our job easier." They absentmindedly flipped through channels for a few more minutes before an incredibly loud noise penetrated the walls, coming from downstairs.

"Do you think...?" Masuyo asked, giving Vincent a significant look. Vincent nodded and both boys transformed, leaning against the walls on either side of the door. More loud noises erupted from the house every two seconds or so, growing closer every time.

Vincent materialized his sword while Masuyo loaded an arrow into his bow. The noises were almost at the door...

Masuyo held up three fingers and mouthed, "_Three, two, one..."_ As the two shifted position to attack whatever was coming through the door, it burst open, and the loudest voice ever shouted "WHAT DID YOU TWO DO!" Vincent and Masuyo were knocked off of their feet and into the wall, many of the objects in the room flying along with them.

"Heheheh...hi, Andrew..." Masuyo said, dizzy from the 'attack'.

"Masuyo thought it would be a good idea to make an explosive." Vincent explained.

"I'm not sure if I should be impressed that he managed to actually make one that powerful, or dumbfounded that he blew up his own house." Andrew replied flatly.

"Well it worked, didn't it? Now if I could just collect the fumes individually..." Masuyo said, thinking.

"_Fumes!_" Andrew exclaimed.

"Well, yes, you see, I was attempting to create a gaseous acid-base reaction powerful enough to be used as a weapon against the DC... I read about it in my book... it worked, obviously." Masuyo said, defending himself.

"...well, whatever." Andrew said, collapsing on his bed. "I'm so tired..."

"Well _you_ didn't have to deal with the press," Masuyo said, detransforming.

"That was your own fault." Andrew countered.

"...meh." Masuyo said, no trace of regret in his voice.

"We need to get back to training." Vincent said matter-of-factly.

"No, I need to sleep. You can train if you want." Andrew replied, his face now in his pillow.

"No way!" Masuyo shouted, shoving Andrew around. "Get up now!"

"Let him rest." Vincent said, such sympathy a bit out-of-character for him. "He's no use to us half-asleep." He walked out of the room, Masuyo following. Andrew would have thanked him, but he was already asleep.

**End**

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I'm going to be off at a conference until next thursday. Think of it as a sabbatical - being absent from writing and stuff might clear my head and let me think better.

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End file.
